God's voice or voice in my head?

I have always had problems distinguishing God's voice from the little voice inside my head.

So I was wondering, were there any times you just really really are sure that it was God telling you to do something, or putting you in a certain situation that you had been praying about?

I went through a tough relationship with DF - I don't know many women who would have stayed with their man if they went through the same thing - and I always felt like I should stay with him, stick it out, keep praying, etc. But I still don't know if that was my little voice wanting to stay because I love him, or God's voice telling me to stay because it was his plan.

Comments (11)

i'm wondering the same thing. DH and I have a lot of ups and downs and I prayed the night before we got married that what God wanted to happen would happen. and when I got to that alter I was at peace. So I think that feeling was my answer. less of a voice and more of an emotion. I would love to know what others think.

For me.. I don't hear a "voice" so much as I have a very strong feeling or a picture of how something is supposed to be. My big example of this... My husband was talking to a coworker a little over a year ago about buying a mini-van from his family. (I was pregnant with our 1st and all we had was this old clunker of a car.) Anyway all we knew was that it mid-90s Ford. Well, I was praying about it and if it was the right car for us that it would be clear and that the funds would be there. And I got this picture in my head of a red mini-van that looks really similar to my parents van. When we went to check it out... It was the car I had seen. I KNEW at that moment that it was meant to be our car.

The times that I've heard an actual voice have been very personal but also very life-changing times for me. I really think that it's just about having discernment as to if what your hearing is you and your desires or if what you hearing is of God and his desires for you. That's where accountablility with other believers can really be beneficial.

I believe if you immerse yourself in the word of God, His voice/will for your life will be evident. I believe praying is our "call" to God and reading the bible is his answer.

I have never heard a voice and I do wonder a lot of the time what His will is for me. But there are times where I am sure I am doing what He has planned for me and others where I know I am not doing what He has planned for me.

I guess this could be no help, except if you dive daily into the word His plan will become clear in your life.

I think that there are times when the Holy Spirit will talk to you thru people, and that it HAS TO be supported by scripture. If it is specific for you (ie. God wants you to have a child)... then if it doesn't go agianst scripture, and you pray for peace God will answer.

When I prayed about marrying my hubby, I asked God "Is this the man for me!!!" and I opened the scripture.. the first verse I read was in Eph 2

You are no longer aliens..... you will dwell together in the spirit, built together (paraphrased)

I have been very happy for almost 14 years and we are expecting our 5th child.

He says in his word to listen to His quiet still voice. That is another way to measure.. if it seems like it is LOUD and IN YOUR FACE.. chances are it is not God. Just check your peace about it.

I'd been going to my friend Rusty's house on a regular basis for two years before learning he had an older brother named Paul (trust me, there is a reason for this but it's really long!).

Well, a mutual friend asked me if I was going to Paul's 21st b-day party and I said "Who's Paul?" and they looked at me like I had suddenly grown another head!

I went to the party and when I walked into the living room, there was this slightly over-weight kind of farm-boy-looking guy wrestling a friend of mine to the ground. Shirt up, incredibly hairy belly hanging out, jeans slipping down his butt, sweating and panting. Not exactly fairy-tale prince material. Turned out this was Paul.

I saw this scene and all of a sudden a weird alien voice shot into my head and said quite clearly "This is the man I want you to marry."

All I could think was You have got to be kidding me!?

I felt a little better when he stood up and I saw that he really was rather cute and had some amazingly broad shoulders (I'm a sucker for shoulders LOL). But I still thought I must have imagined the voice.

Turns out, it was right. We got to be really close friends and married two years later!

--

"Someday, I'm going to be that crazy lady you hear about on the news, who snapped and attacked someone with a ceramic animal."

In answer to your question; both. I beilieve you can't disregard your feelings and separate them from God's will. It seems for me that within us all we have a conscience that tells us what is sin for us, and when we go against that little voice in our head, on the most minute matters, it is a sin against ourselves, if not God. I think we over coplicate God's will sometimes. God can't direct us while we are still anymore than we can steer our car when it isn't moving. We just need to go forward, and believe that if we are in God's will, and we are looking for it, he will direct our paths. (Not he will direct us to our path even.) He makes our way straight. . .but not usually until we are looking back does it feel that way.

Anyhow, God is love, and whatever decisions we make in the name of love, have got to be the right ones. Frankly, staying with a man and working it out because you love him sounds like a no brainer to an outsider like me. . .mind you, working it out can also mean having to deal with the problems with tough love. If you think he needs help, even professional help, but you can't afford it, you might first try working on your side of it. Not like it seems though. . .making him accountable for his issues, while dealing with what you might be doing to encourage the behavior that you hate. I've found great help from a book called boundaries in marriage, and I think every abusive situation would be helped from it. Just remember, we all have a part to play, because of our sinful nature. ("The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?") So continue to listen to that little voice, and let God speak. . .or whatever you want to call it. I personally wonder if some religions (that don't have an old, hard to understand book as their guide, over their "Spirit" ) listen to their spirit more than Christians do. Just take the seering of the conscience as far as the earth and all that's in it is concerned. . . the Christians are at the for front of animal torture, and the destruction of our world. We were told to tend the garden, and have dominion (Authority) over the animals. To our own hurt we have twisted what God has said, and greedily followed after gains, against our own consciences. Frankly, I'm ashamed of what this "Christian" country has done that flies in the face of the conscience of the rest of the world as a whole. We need to stop being so dependent on our poor understanding, and how people brainwash us into thinking the Bible says something that goes against my conscience, and listen more to our "Spirit". I'm not saying go against the Bible, just if it seems to justify wrong, consider that it might be misinterpreted.

I probably opened a can of worms, but sorry, it's just the way I see it.

I know that God's voice isn't really a physical "voice", but just a strong feeling. But sometimes I don't know how to distinguish that from my feelings I have just because I'm human? I don't know how to explain it, haha.

I always know the difference in my voice in my mind and God's. Though they sound similar their is one thing that sets them apart. Feeling pushed to really get up and do what He is asking me to do. I can just feel in my heart its from Him. I have a close relationship with God on that level.

He even moved me to pick up a hitch hiker once. It was a young woman. When I picked her up (from next to my house, I could have just gone home and ignored Him instead), I found out she was going to walk about 18 miles to her destination and it was almost dark. Lucky I listened. Dangerous world out their for women especially in the area I live not only was it a windy road she was walking on (and wearing dark clothes) but its literally the middle of nowhere, who knows what kind of creep could of picked her up.

Ultimately it is part of God's plan for us to stick it out for once we are married we have become "one flesh" with our spouse. I think their may be certain circumstances that would make it okay to divorce like physical and even possible emotional abuse, but if God is telling you to just stick around and have faith that everything will be alright I'm sure that is God's voice.